Top



Dec. 7, 1926. 1309.336

N. B. WARD I v TOP Filed Sept. 23, 1925 FIELI- FIEJI- w/ r/v'sssss Patented Dec. 7, 1926.

UNEIEE stares PATENT @FMQE.

TOP.

Application filed September 23, 1925. Serial No. 58,062.

My invention relates to improvements in tops, and particularly in tops such as are shown in Letters Patent of the United States No. 685,311, granted October 29, 1901.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. I 1s a view of the assembled top in side elevation; Fig. II is a View of it in axial section; Fig. III is a view in plan from beneath.

The top consists of a body portion 1, and a two-part stem 2, 3. The body includes an axially perforate hub 11 and a conical web to which in the drawings the numeral 1 is immediately applied, terminating in a weighted rim 12. The two parts of the stem telescope one into the other, as is clearly seen in Fig. II, and opposite shoulders 20 and 30 are formed which define the position of the body member upon the stem. The distance between these shoulders is fixed by the abutment of the lower end of the stem part 2 upon the bottom of the bore in stem part 3. It will be observed that the vertical depth of the hub 11 of the body portion, as seen in Fig. II should not exceed the space interval between the shoulders 20 and 30 of the assembled stem, but should in fact be sufficiently less to give clearance and free turning. Such nicety of proportion becomes possible in the practice of my invention. Of the stem it suffices to add that its parts are formed from wire in an automatic machine, and the shaping is essentially that of lathe turning.

The hub 11 ,exteriorly is polygonal in cross-section, to afford firmer hold of the string wound upon it to spin it.

The conical web 1 is shown to be banded externally with concentric rings 18. These are a matter of ornamentation merely, and suggest that between the rings the surface may be variously colored.

It has not hitherto been possible to produce the top of the patent alluded to above, with commercial success. All attempts to do so have failed, because of the impossibility of producing at a permissible cost a top body having the characteristics set forth in the patent, and in dimension responsive with sufiicient accuracy to specification. It has hitherto been deemed necessary to the production of such atop for the market, that its body be formed of cast iron. And in forming the body of cast iron it has been found a practical necessity that the hub be cast initially solid and imperforate, and that in an ensuing operation an axial bore be drilled through the hub for the passage of the stem. It has been found impossible to obtain iron castings for the bodies of such tops so accurate in their proportions as to be serviceable. The casting shrinks in 0001- mg and the shrinkage is irregular, and two particular diificulties were in fact encountered, one, that the hubs of a series of castlngs could not bedrilled axially with prec1s1on; and, second, that the hubs were so various in length that the body of the top could not certainly turn freely between the two sections of the stem when these were telescoped together. The best efforts to manufacture the tops of the patent under these, the only possible recognized conditions, resulted in rejections to the extent of thirty per cent of the product. This was impossible, and attempts to manufacture were given up.

I have discovered that by'forming the top bodies as die castings and of a non-shrink able metal, I can not only get a product uniformly accurate in its proportions and responsive to specification, but I can actually produce the top body with the bore for the stem formed within it when the body itself is initially formed. Thus I dispense with the separate and succeeding and expensive and hitherto inaccurate step of drilling a bore through the hub. I preferably employ as the non-shrinkable metal out of which I form the top body an alloy of zinc base. And I produce an article of such accuracy in shape and proportion that practically none are rejected, and commercial production becomes possible. Incidentally, I have improved the shape of the top in detail.

Operation is manifest. The spinning string is wound externally upon hub 11. The parts then being in the position shown in Figs. I and II, the spinner rests the top on its lower spinning point on a suitable surface, and holding the top erect by means of the upper stem section, he presses the stem firmly downward to gain the necessary rigidity. He then pulls the string and so sets the body portion to spinning, and then he releases the stem. It is in consequence of the clearance above and below for the hub of the body portion between the shoulders and 21- top body formed of non-shrinkable 20 and 30, that satisfactory operation is asmetal shaped by die-casting with an axial sured. perforation, rotatably mounted upon said 1 The top niay be spun equally'well in in stem.

.3 t' d iti In testimonyvwhereof I'hztve hereunto set I cliiino as my invention: my hand. A top including a two-part telescopio stem NORMAN B. WVARD. 

